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G8 St Petersburg Fighting High Level Corruption: Statement

Commitments in: Other

“We, the Leaders of the G8, renew our commitment to fight corruption, in particular at the highest levels, and to improve transparency and accountability…We underscore our commitment to prosecute acts of corruption and to preventing corrupt holders of public office from gaining access to the fruits of their kleptocratic activities in our financial systems…

…Action Plan

“Today, we advance our commitment against high level large-scale public corruption. We commit to:
continue to investigate and prosecute corrupt public officials and those who bribe them, including by vigorously enforcing our laws against bribery of foreign public officials to ensure that the supply side of corruption is effectively prosecuted consistent with domestic legislation;

work with all the international financial centers and our private sectors to deny safe haven to assets illicitly acquired by individuals engaged in high level corruption. In this framework, we reiterate our commitment to take concrete steps to ensure that financial markets are protected from criminal abuse, including bribery and corruption, by pressing all financial centres to attain and implement the highest international standards of transparency and exchange of information;

implement fully our commitments to seek, when appropriate and in accordance with national laws, to deny entry and safe haven, to public officials found guilty of corruption, developing a compendium of our best practices and promoting information sharing on those identified as corrupt;

work together and with international and regional development institutions to rigorously combat fraud and corruption and misuse of public resources, to support national efforts to combat corruption by building capacity and strengthening the rule of law, fiscal transparency and accountability, and reforming public procurement systems and to develop and promote mechanisms that support effective return of recovered assets…;

…support the global ratification and implementation of the UN Convention Against Corruption and call upon those States that have not already ratified the UNCAC to do so at the earliest date possible. We also commit to target our assistance to prevent corruption through transparency and accountability while enhancing capacity to detect, prosecute, and recover the proceeds of large-scale corruption, and building strong systems to prevent exploitation and promote responsible and accountable leadership. We will work together at the conference of State Parties to promote effective implementation of our shared commitments;

ensure vigorous implementation of the OECD Anti-bribery Convention by parties to the Convention, including through ensuring that domestic law adopted in this framework is effectively implemented and through further effective peer review evaluation;

promote governance and greater fiscal transparency, notably through the Sea Island Compacts and by supporting the implementation of EITI;

work towards including in our regional and bilateral trade agreements provisions promoting transparency in government procurement and concessions, as well as provisions on trade facilitation; and

fight vigorously against money laundering, including by prosecuting money laundering offences and by implementing the revised recommendations of the FATF-related customer due diligence, transparency of legal persons and arrangements which are essential to tackling corruption.”